Image designed using Canva
I was perusing Twitter some days ago and stumbled on a tweet of one of these Twitter influencers and she was lamenting bitterly in it, calling another influencer names for tricking her. So people flocked to see what the accusation was about. And turns out that she was in some sort of unspoken rivalry with the other influencer and so when this influencer posted a picture where she was in a Range Rover, the lamenting influencer felt bitter and borrowed a Range Rover from someone to post hers, but somehow the car was stolen from her and now she鈥檚 in debt and the owner of the car is threatening to arrest her if it isn鈥檛 provided.
I shook my head in disbelief at such a ludicrous story. However, things like this are common. The effect of social media on the way people live their lives these days cannot be overemphasized. And I鈥檒l list some of the core things social media instills in us as it relates to our spending lives.
First, it creates an attitude of Comparison. We are constantly bombarded with the seemingly perfect lives of people. We see them buying expensive things and supposedly living the life we鈥檝e always wanted and so, that feeling of inadequacy immediately sweeps us and so we go outside of our plans and spend on things we don鈥檛 need just to keep up appearances.
The possible way to resist this is by simply focusing on our goals and values. Not letting the things people do affect us. Doing this protects our mental health because, to be honest, constantly comparing yourself with others is the surest way to destroy our mental health.
Second, is how it encourages us to Buy Impulsively.This is made even easier and more dangerous with the advent of online shopping. So, with just a few clicks, you can basically buy the world. We say we are going to spend just five minutes on, let鈥檚 say, IG, but we end up spending an hour or more because social media is designed to make us do just that. Keep scrolling, which leads to impulsive buying.
But the best way to resist this is sticking to the budget we created and taking the time to ask ourselves if the things we want to buy align with our financial goals and even more important if we really need them. Maybe taking a day or two to decide will help reduce impulsive buying.
And lastly, is how social media promotes the culture of Excess. Because of how flashy the things people on social media buy, flaunting their wealth and the things they have, it creates that unnecessary desire in us to have more than we need. The rock-pull that awaits behaviour like this is drastic because you can never completely meet up with someone as there will always be someone more financially placed.
Our resistance mechanism, therefore, is practising contentment. Being grateful for the things we have and understanding that material possessions only bring temporary happiness.
As social media is a phenomenon that is not disappearing anytime soon, we need to learn to not let it affect our spending habits. Practising discipline is necessary so that we don鈥檛 find ourselves in a situation like that unfortunate influencer who would have to buy a whole Range Rover that she didn鈥檛 even need just to keep up appearances.
Let鈥檚 try to be honest with ourselves about our financial situation. There鈥檚 no need to try to live a life or keep up with others if it鈥檚 not sustainable for us, keeping in mind that everyone鈥檚 financial situation is different and there鈥檚 no harm in prioritizing saving over spending.